The present invention generally relates to a plenum apparatus for interconnecting heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment or connecting HVAC equipment to ductwork. More particularly, the present invention relates to a transitional telescoping plenum apparatus that is able to expand in length, width and height dimensions to fit virtually any particular application that may be encountered in a given installation.
Over the past decade or so, many products have been developed to help contractors in time-savings efforts, and to provide them with quick-connect applications for installations of HVAC equipment. Products such as corrugated stainless steel tubing, electrical xe2x80x9cwhips,xe2x80x9d pre-charged refrigeration lines, and many other devices have been developed to help reduce instillation time on the job.
Sheet metal products have been the only types of products that have not followed in this push for labor savings. Although there are currently many types of pre-fabricated return airdrops and fixed size plenums, a general problem exists for wholesales in that they have to carry numerous sizes to accommodate the various equipment with which they are to be installed. This often translates into inventory problems for wholesalers and availability problems for contractors. Additionally, field technicians must cut and bend and fold, by hand, an incredible amount of variations to fit these pre-fabricated plenums to a given application.
The transitional telescoping plenum apparatus of the present invention addresses these problems by providing a xe2x80x9cone size fits allxe2x80x9d plenum apparatus for HVAC equipment installations.
In general, the present invention provides a transitional telescoping plenum apparatus having a first tier including at least first, second, third, and fourth corner sections interleaved to provide the first tier with an at least four-sided configuration that is adjustable in width and length dimensions, the first tier providing a mounting flange at a first edge thereof and a tier-connecting flange at a second edge thereof; and a second tier including at least first, second, third, and fourth corner sections interleaved to provide the second tier with an at least four-sided configuration complimentary to the at least four-sided configuration of the first tier and adjustable in width and length dimensions, the second tier providing a tier-connecting flange at a first edge thereof communicating with the tier-connecting flange of the first tier to connect the first and second tiers, wherein the height of the transitional telescoping plenum apparatus is adjustable according to the distance maintained between the tier-connecting flanges of the first tier and the second tier.
As will be show below, in other embodiments, three or more tiers are employed, with each additional tier providing a structure that is complimentary to the tier or tiers to which it is to be attached, so as to create a complete transitional telescoping plenum apparatus comprised of multiple modular tiers.